folding table, chair and rug

Ever since the Dutch Golden Age, cheap wooden furniture has been embellished with all kinds of decorative paintwork. The furniture painters of the City of Hindeloopen developed a style of their own, inspired on the colourful East-Indian fabrics that were brought to the Netherlands by the Dutch East Indian Company. The Hindeloopen painters combined the magnificent Indian display of colours with floral and bird-like patterns, which proved very successful.

In 2011 the traditional Hindeloopen furniture inspired designer Christien Meindertsma to make her ‘Oak inside’ series. She lay iron objects on the top of this oaken table. As iron extracts the natural tannin from wood, the result was that the objects left a permanent ‘print’ on the table top.

P.s. for those who like to be virtually immersed in authentic Hindeloopen painted art: make sure to take a look in the Museum’s Hindeloopen Room.